Theatrical Sound Designers and Composers Association

Five of Las Vegas great brass players, led by first trumpet Gary Cordell, join TSDCA for an adventurous look at everything those great instruments can do, examining period music, jazz composition/arrangements and voicing, mutes of all kinds, and especially contemporary music and extended techniques – including a freewheeling talk about the lives of musicians in Las Vegas and how so many great musicians wear all the interesting hats they do to keep things going for a lifetime.

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MICHAEL ROTH has composed chamber music, film scores, new opera & music/theatre, and music and sound for theatre productions throughout North America. His self-produced THE WEB OPERA –  thewebopera.com – composed to raise awareness of cyber-abuse, has been an official selection at 35 film festivals and an Opera America finalist, with a new fourth episode to be premiered soon. Other projects: in LA, HENRY IV with Tom Hanks and RICHARD III with Al Pacino; with Christopher Plummer, THE TEMPEST and Plummer’s solo-show at the Stratford Festival; IMAGINATION DEAD IMAGINE, his treatment of Beckett’s text for string quartet and laptop, performed in LA and Prague, most recently in Ashland; two US premieres with Tom Stoppard; collaborations with Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig; and many projects with Randy Newman including music direction for Disney’s PRINCESS & THE FROG, orchestrations and music direction for Randy’s FAUST in concert most recently in LA and editing five anthology songbooks. SHEETCAKE, his sonata for 4 pianos, toy piano and electric bass was recently premiered in LA. Michael studied with William Bolcom, has taught at UCSD, was a founding TSDCA board member and hosted 30 TSDCA Composer Salons during the pandemic.

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, trumpet player Gary Cordell has been on the Las Vegas music scene for over 35 years. He has been a member of many of the Las Vegas Strip Orchestras including Steve Wynn’s Showstoppers, Sinatra – Dance with Me, Spamalot, Legends in Concert, The Golden Nugget Orchestra, and Phantom – The Las Vegas Spectacular. He has performed with many top headliners including Billy Joel, Elton John, Lady Gaga, Seth MacFarland. Barbara Streisand, Sarah MacLachlan, Sheryl Crow, Heart, Josh Groban, Tears for Fears, Metallica, Scorpions, Lynyrd Skynyrd, David Foster, Natalie Cole, Johnny Mathis, Andrea Bocelli, Gloria Estefan, Robin Thicke, Seal, Chaka Khan, Graham Nash, The Turtles, Kenny Rogers, Gladys Knight, Diana Ross, Frankie Valli, The Four Tops, The Temptations, The O’Jays and many others. Gary is a co-founder of T.A.P.P.S – an organization that serves fallen veterans and first responders by providing a professional trumpeter to perform taps at final honors and funeral services, and the co-founder of Jazz Outreach initiative (JOI), a non-profit organization that was founded to fill a need in the community for greater exposure to jazz studies and awareness, focusing on students of all ages.  Through festivals, clinics, “Band Directors Academy,” “Jazz for Young People Concerts”, and other outreach programs, JOI celebrates the great American art form by promoting it through the next generation of performers, audiences, and consumers. Jazz Outreach Initiative connects the language of music to the language of life through education, outreach, and performances.

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Grammy Award-winning Trombonist and Educator Isrea Butler has obtained multiple degrees in trombone performance from the Eastman School of Music (BM and MM) and Rutgers University (DMA). His teachers include John Marcellus, Ralph Sauer, George Roberts, Tom Ervin, Michael Powell, and Weston Sprott; as well as being a founding member of the Gateways Brass Collective, he is the lead trombonist of the Legendary Count Basie Orchestra. In addition to orchestras and jazz ensembles, he has played trombone and tuba for eight Broadway productions. Currently, he is the Director of the UNLV School of Music. Previously, he was Music Department Head at Valdosta State University, Music Department Chair at North Carolina Central University, and Professor of Trombone from 2017 – 2021. He has also served as the Director of Bands and music program coordinator at The University of Maryland Eastern Shore and as Director of Jazz Studies and Low Brass at the University of Mary. Dr. Butler was also the Visiting Assistant Professor of Trombone at Jackson State University, where he taught trombone, conducted the University Brass Ensemble and Jazz Combo, and taught graduate music. He has also taught at the Eastman School of Music, Juilliard’s MAP, and Rutgers University. His students have gone on to perform, teach, and study at graduate schools such as Indiana University, Berklee, UNI, Rutgers, Eastman, University of Memphis, Towson University, and Montclair State.

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Larry Ransom has been a contract member of the Las Vegas Philharmonic for nearly 20 years and has been performing professionally in Las Vegas since 1996.  He’s worked with headliners such as Andrea Bocelli, Sarah Brightman, Hugh Jackman, Dennis DeYoung, NAS, and more.  Along with his friend and colleague, Gary Cordell, Larry also helped found TAPPS, an organization that hires professional trumpeters to perform ‘Taps’ at military funerals at no cost to military families.